Midwest Mayhem Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

So, yeah it wasn't pretty.

We had to tread water for several minutes before the siren went off and I am thinking, "Holy hell, I am going to poop myself out before we even start." The siren goes off and off we go. I did about 25 yards, then nothing. Drank the lake, got hit by a couple people and just, stopped crawling and decided to breast stroke it a bit. I was trying to calm down and regain my rythmn, but that never happened.

I had noticed there was another guy swimming next to me with his goggles up and swimming side stroke. He's says, "Hi my name is Matt, what's yours?" I tell him and we both agree to keep each other company on the swim, since his isn't going so well either.

I started laughing and telling him about a comment I had made to a friend of mine when I decided to do tris. I said, "You see, this is the reason brown people don't swim. We bike and we run, but swim? Not really." To this, he agreed (as he was a brown person too) and we laughed.

We kept each other company the whole way even when the other waves caught up to us. There was no freestyle in me, but we both made it. We wished each other good luck and out of the water we went.

I tell you what, those bouys are alot farther apart than you think. :)

Umm..isn't it obvious I need more time in the pool and doing OWS?

So upon exiting the water (trying to do so gracefully, but that didn't work) we have to run up this short STEEP grade into TA.

There is no other wonderful feeling in the world, then wanting to seriously hurl all of the water, gatorade and GU that you just consumed about 35 minutes prior on to all of your gear.

It took me a very long time to overcome the nausea and not blow chunks in front of everyone there. So, I took my time to catch my breathe (I couldn't bend down to put my shoes on anyway) and then proceeded to get my gear on and run to the bike exit.

Umm..isn't it obvious I need more time in the pool and doing OWS...and then not hurling when I'm finished?

I wasn't too worried about the bike segment. I had driven it the weekend before and knew what I was up against. There was a huge hill out of T1, but I was ready for it.

And knowing is half the battle.

I need to do more hill work outs. I am still learning the technical aspects of cycling along with proper form and power management.

It will come with more practice. Possibly some more group rides and clinics will be in my future.

MUCH BETTER. However, my left calf started to charlie horse about mile 9. I coaxed it to give me what little distance left, and it happily obliged.

Change faster. Get some tri shoes for the bike to take my feet out sooner.

Dammit if I didn't get that charlie horse starting on the bike. About 100 yards into the run, it wanted to pull. I.said.no. Massaged it a bit and then trotted on. Again, it wanted to pull. I.said.NO! Massaged and walked a bit. It took about 500 yards (after steep incline) to get it worked out and off I went.

Still managed to hold close to a 10 min/mile. This made Danny very happy. Yes, Danny happy indeed. After the knee injury, it held up pretty good.

More calf stretches.

Screamed "Holy Hell that sucked and I'm done!!" followed by a very BIG smile. Grabbed some bananas and water, limped over to Mom and the bf and began to relive the ordeal in agonizing pain.

I think I'm in love with this sport!


The injury sustained in late May prevented a better performance. I need more practice, which I already knew.

This is just a building year. I'm not trying to compete...........yet.


I love KLM and the events they put on. The RD is a fantastic guy and I got encouragement from him everytime I passed him.

However, you should never never never only have 4 johns for 300+ people.

Need more volunteers on the bike course.

I will update the official rankings once they are posted.

Not bad for my first tri!